A Little PEZ History Lesson
Pez candy was invented in 1927 by Eduard Haas III. PEZ was first marketed as a compressed peppermint candy over 70 years ago in Vienna, Austria. The name PEZ was derived from the German word for peppermint...PfeffErminZ. They took the first, middle and last letter and came up with the word PEZ. Get it? Neat huh :)

Today, over 3 billion PEZ Candies are consumed annually in the U.S.A. alone. The PEZ dispenser, invented in 1948, was initially targeted for adult smokers, and the first dispenser was designed to look like a cigarette lighter (no character heads). Prior to that they were placed in tins that people carried around with them. The original tins are highly sought after by pez collectors.
When they came to the United States in 1952, they placed heads on the dispensers and marketed it for children. New flavors were invented which were targeted for this younger audience. Hmmm what was the first pez character head. Well there are many different opinions on this. Some say Popeye, others say Casper. I haven't found anyone who knows for sure. Personally I'm leaning towards Casper.

The candy found in the U.S. is actually made in Orange, Conneticut. Dispensers are made in and imported from Austria, Czech Republic, China, Hungry, Hong Kong, Yugoslavia, and Slovenia and then packaged with candy for the U.S. and Canadian markets. Flavors available today are peppermint, orange, strawberry, lemon, grape, sour apple, sour pineapple, sour watermelon, cherry and raspberry. There were also a few new flavors added overseas in 2007. Added flavors included were: raspberry lemon, tangerine, strawberry vanilla, and peach. In 2008, PEZ will be bringing back the chocolate flavor (was out years ago) so keep your eyes open for it!